comicbookGRRRLDo not offend the chair leg of truth; it is wise and terrible.

A super duper exclusive look at two of my favourite pages from the upcoming brilliantly deranged miniseries that is one part Spider Jerusalem punk, one part Mieville madness, and a dash of Cronenberg with a psychedelic Mortimer cherry on top.

As someone who is pretty privileged to be able to write about comics for both fun and work, I get a lot of comics on my desk waiting to be read and hoping to be reviewed. Very occasionally I come across one that not only impresses me, but smacks me in the face with utter glee. Rarely does this come out of nowhere, but for me one comic in particular this year was a complete shock to the system. Ladies, gentlemen – I give you Ballistic!

A highly charged debut is hot off the presses at Black Mask Studios this Wednesday, with animal rights activists stepping up to the vigilante plate and following in the footsteps of Buddy Baker, grassroots style.

I’ve written about Liberator, from Matt Miner and Javier Sanchez, before in our exclusive sneak peak back in April where I pinged it as my debut of the year. Funded by Kickstarter and lavished with praise from the likes of Scott Snyder, Steve Niles, Chris Burnham and Jimmy Palmiotti, Liberator promised “a unique and beautifully illustrated comic book series starring brave heroes risking it all to protect animals” with Miner going so far as to donate his portion of post-Kickstarter profits to the animal rescue work that he devotes much of his time to.

Over at The Beat we dedicated last Friday to celebrating the wonderful world of webcomics. We each picked some of our favourites and one was featured every hour. Check out the masterlist and my selections below!

The Abominable Charles Christopher
- one of those rare comics that I recommend to absolutely everyone regardless of their age, genre preferences or comic reading habits. It’s also one of the hardest comics to describe in a way that fully conveys the beauty and genius inside, as it is essentially the tale of a Yeti or Abominable Snowman and his woodland friends... [Read the full article here!]

Gunnerkrigg Court
- a comic that I find myself trying not to visit for as long as possible, only so that I can then drink up a nice long chunk in one go before reluctantly slithering back into withdrawal. The plot is always veering off in spectacular new directions, with cliffhangers and revelations and I WANT TO KNOW MORE! [Read the full article here!]

JL8
- probably one of the main reasons I’ve been feeling meh about DC lately. Because this, THIS, is how our heroes should be done! [Read the full article here!]

Sin Titulo
- a master class in comics storytelling, courtesy of the ridiculously talented Cameron Stewart of Seaguy, Batman and The Other Side fame. It is also the only webcomic I’ve experienced genuine rage when reading, because my goddamn 16 MB/s connection wasn’t loading the next page fast enough. [Read the full article here!]

Sinfest
- most probably a comic everyone has heard of – Tatsuya “Tats” Ishida’s daily strip has been going strong for some thirteen years now but things have recently taken a surprising feminist turn. [Read the full article here!]

The Phoenix Requiem
- probably one of the most beautiful webcomics I’ve read. It is also now complete after 25 chapters and 800 gorgeous pages – the perfect time to sit down and start reading! [Read the full article here!]

Oglaf
- “Warning. This comic started out as an attempt to make pornography.” begins the opening page of the website. “It degenerated into sex comedy pretty much immediately.” Confirm that you are over 18 and we’re on our way! [Read the full article here!]

A spoiler-free farewell to my beloved favourite, and a note of regret from an ex-fan of the New 52.

I almost didn’t pick issue one off the shelf. In a year saturated with vampires, the cover suggested that this would be one more silly dark romance yarn but with added naked and fanged women: not always what I look for in a comic. Still, in the spirit of being one of the rare new New 52 readers – previously I had only bought the trade collections – I had a quick peek within and immediately added it to my haul. Settling down at home with my spread of Batmen, ex-Vertigo characters, Morrison-penned heroes, and random picks, I came to I, Vampire last. And was immediately delighted. This was it, this was the comic I’d been waiting on. I foisted it upon my friends, “read this,” I instructed, and begged them to ignore the cover.

The official trailer for upcoming movie R.I.P.D. hit the internet last week, and sparked a stampede of people rushing to label the supernatural buddy cop romp as stepping a little too neatly into the swanky shoes of the Men in Black. Some went so far as to write R.I.P.D. off as a poor MiB rip-off. Here’s why they’re wrong.

When it comes to Wonder Woman, the headlines suggest that we only seem to care about three things: what she’s wearing, what her latest TV attempt is wearing, and who she is banging. Basically, it’s all about her pants.

This week I sat down and caught up with Wonder Woman. She’s a character I’ve never quite got on with as well as I feel I should, her blankness never quite being filled despite tremendous efforts from Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, and more. Unlike Superman and Batman ,DC’s foremost female hero has no secret identity to ground her, no strong motivation to steer her path. And yet, just beyond tantalising reach is surely some of the greatest stories never told.